First came Nice Ride, a nonprofit bike-sharing operation known for distinctive green bikes. Then came Motivate, which has joined with Nice Ride to roll out dockless blue bikes.

The next thing? Bird, which scooted into the Twin Cities on Tuesday with plenty of ambition but, as of yet, no legal permits.

With no advance warning, Bird, a dockless electric scooter company, began offering scooter-sharing to subscribers in St. Paul’s downtown and Frogtown neighborhood, as well as downtown Minneapolis and North Minneapolis.

“We woke up with them on the streets of St. Paul, just like everybody else,” said St. Paul Public Works spokeswoman Lisa Hiebert.

Public Works officials spoke with company representatives by phone Tuesday afternoon and asked them to remove their 100 scooters from the public right-of-way. In response, Bird said it would review that request and consider its options.

In a written statement, Public Works director Kathy Lantry said she was “excited about the possibilities of new, innovative, shared methods of getting around” but noted “we need to be thoughtful about how these new options are placed and used.”

In city after city, the company has operated under the general outlook that it’s better to seek forgiveness than permission. The Twin Cities are no exception. Despite putting more than 200 electric scooters on local roads, Bird still needs to get permits for operating on public streets and sidewalks.

If approved by the full council, it will be several weeks before the new rules are in place. Minneapolis officials said several vendors have already approached the city and the University of Minnesota, and some state and local rules already apply.

It’s illegal, for instance, to block the public right-of-way.

A pair of electric scooters are seen across the street from St. Paul City Hall on Tuesday, July 10, 2018. Bird, an electric scooter-sharing company, distributed 100 scooters in St. Paul and another 100 in Minneapolis Tuesday. (Frederick Melo / Pioneer Press)

While bike-sharing has been carefully negotiated and regulated, electric scooters have rolled in guerrilla-style. Minneapolis recently entered into a contract with Motivate, which has partnered with Nice Ride to offer dockless bike-sharing, and St. Paul is negotiating with a dockless bike-sharing vendor that has yet to be made public. Scooter-sharing, however, breaks new ground.

Bird officials did not make themselves available for media interviews Tuesday. Instead, a spokesman from a media relations agency, CrossCut Strategies, forwarded a brief statement on behalf of the company: “We look forward to working closely with the Twin Cities so that Bird is a reliable, affordable, and environmentally friendly transportation option.”

1 MILLION BIRD RIDES

A lack of licensing hasn’t stopped the start-up company before. Bird (Bird.co) has landed in nearly two dozen cities nationwide, drawing pushback from some city governments.

“Since launching in September of 2017, Bird riders have logged more than a million rides,” according to the company’s marketing materials, which were circulated to the media Tuesday.

In the Twin Cities, scooter-sharing hatched at 7 a.m. Tuesday with 100 scooters stationed in St. Paul and another 100 in Minneapolis.

The electric scooters — often left on sidewalks and accessed or “unlocked” by a smartphone app — have rolled into 22 American cities, offering scooter rides at up to 15 mph. The Los Angeles-based company is reportedly valued at $2 billion. Scooter rides begin at $1 and charge 15 cents per minute after that.

Nationwide, they’ve become a popular draw — and a controversial one.

SCOOTERS BEHAVING BADLY

To end a ride, or lock a scooter, users are expected to take a picture of where they’ve parked their Bird and download the photo into the app. Given widespread complaints, it’s questionable how well that has worked, as the light-weight scooters are easily moved. Company officials say they encourage users to stick to streets, bike lanes and bike trails, but they don’t explicitly prohibit sidewalk use.

In response, the scooters have drawn pushback from city governments such as San Francisco and Denver, which have banned them at least until permit regulations are enacted. Bird isn’t the only major player in the scooter-sharing market. Uber has been investing in LimeBike, which operates scooter-sharing and bike-sharing in dozens of cities across the United States and Europe.

“We welcome new and innovative ways to help people get around St. Paul, but this is new ground,” said Hiebert, the St. Paul Public Works spokeswoman. “Just like a homeowner who is doing some remodeling, and they want a dumpster out on the street, they need a permit to be in the public right-of-way. And we just want to be really thoughtful about how we safely deploy new methods to get around the city.”

Frederick Melo was once sued by a reader for $2 million but kept on writing. He came to the Pioneer Press in 2005 and brings a testy East Coast attitude to St. Paul beat reporting. He spent nearly six years covering crime in the Dakota County courts before switching focus to the St. Paul mayor's office, city council, and all things neighborhood-related, from the city's churches to its parks and light rail. A resident of Hamline-Midway, he is married to a Frogtown woman. He Tweets with manic intensity at @FrederickMelo.

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